Researchers in Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea have developed biodegradable microrobots that can be magnetically controlled to deliver drugs and provide hyperthermia treatment at the site of a tumor. This latest research effort attempts to provide a delivery option for two different therapy pypes by creating biode (Read more...)
Author: Medgadged
Streaming on Android Devices Now Available for Individuals with Hearing Loss
For people with hearing loss, use of a mobile or smartphone can be challenging and with limited options. While Bluetooth-connected hearing aids are available, these solutions impose a significant energy requirement that drains battery life. Most available Bluetooth hearing aids today do not allow users to have access to their mobile device for an e (Read more...)
Sacrificial Ink Writing Technique for 3D Printed Organs
Researchers at Harvard have developed a way to 3D print vascular channels in large matrices composed of stem cell-derived organ building blocks. The technique could pave the way for 3D-printed organs. Creating human organs using 3D printing would help to address the current shortfall in available transplants. However, to date, this has proved to be (Read more...)
Injectable Hydrogel for Transcatheter Intravascular Embolization: Interview with Dr. Rahmi Oklu, Founder of Obsidio
Obsidio Inc., a medical device company based in Columbia, South Carolina, has developed an embolic hydrogel (called a gel embolic material: GEM) designed to be delivered minimally invasively through a clinical catheter for blood vessel occlusion. Applications include controlling blood flow in vascular injuries and aneurysms, reducing tumor blood su (Read more...)
Flo Women’s Health App Announces Launch of PCOS Health Assistant
In recognition of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) Awareness Month, Flo, a digital platform for women’s health and wellbeing, has announced the successful launch of PCOS Health Assistant, a self-assessment tool to help identify the risk of PCOS. PCOS is a hormonal disorder found in women that can cause irregular periods, higher than normal le (Read more...)
Tivus Ultrasound System for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Gets FDA Breakthrough Designation
SoniVie, a company based in Israel, won FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for its TIVUS intravascular ultrasound system for patients suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Currently there are only medications available for PAH and even those don’t do so well at improving mortality rates, so the new designation is potentially (Read more...)
Doctors Perform First Minimally Invasive Remote Robotic Cardiac Procedure
Clinicians in India have teamed up to demonstrate the feasibility of having a physician remotely perform percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures. Using the CorPath GRX, an FDA cleared cath lab robot that lets physicians stay away from the radiation produced by fluoroscopes, the team from the Apex Heart Institute in Ahmedabad positioned (Read more...)
Nanovolcanoes Record Electrical Activity Inside Heart Cells
The electrical activity of cardiomyocytes and other excitable cells such as neurons is studied using a number of techniques. To get details about the action potentials within the interior of the cell requires either forcefully pushing microelectrodes through the cellular barrier or using electroporation, a high voltage technique that makes temporar (Read more...)
Edwards ForeSight Brain Oxygenation Sensors FDA Cleared to Pair with Hemosphere Monitor
Edwards Lifesciences won FDA clearance to integrate its ForeSight brain tissue oxymetry sensors with the HemoSphere monitoring platform. While the clearance is really for a connecting cable, the capability allows anesthesiologists to monitor the oxygen saturation of the brain during surgeries and to correlate it with hemodynamic parameters in real- (Read more...)
Multi-Sensing Glove Makes Prosthetic Hands More Real
Engineers from Purdue University, University of Georgia, and University of Texas have combined forces to develop a glove that can be put over existing prosthetic hands to give them a more life-like feel and the ability to sense a variety of parameters. The glove is intended to improve a user’s ability to interact with others. […]
Masimo Unveils Pathway Newborn Oxygen Saturation Visualizer
The first few minutes after birth are critical in a child’s life. Clinicians generally follow the guidelines of the American Heart Association’s International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation when monitoring blood oxygenation during the first ten minutes post birth. This is usually performed “manually,” either with printed (Read more...)
Non-Invasive Liver Assessment: Interview with Echosens’ New CEO Dominique Legros
Echosens is a medical device company based in Paris, France that’s focused on diagnosing liver disease. Their technology, called FibroScan, uses ultrasonic waves to non-invasively measure the elasticity and absorption of the liver. These measurements can inform medical care teams about the amount of scar tissue and fatty content in a patient& (Read more...)
Pacemaker-Like Implant Cleared in Europe to Lower Blood Pressure
Orchestra BioMed, a company out of New Hope, Pennsylvania, won the European CE Mark of approval for the Moderato implantable pulse generator which delivers Orchestra’s unique BackBeat Cardiac Neuromodulation Therapy (CNT) to treat hypertension. High blood pressure is typically treated using drugs, but BackBeat allows even existing cardiac imp (Read more...)
Gold Nanoclusters Power a Simple Cancer Urine Test
Researchers at Imperial College London and MIT have developed a simple cancer urine test based on injected gold nano-clusters which enter the urine only in the presence of cancer. So far, the researchers have used the test to detect colon cancer in mice. A positive result is indicated through a simple color change, meaning that […]
Nanoscale Light Manipulation for Detection of Tiny Pathogens
Viruses are so small that to be able to detect them using light you need instruments that work on the nanoscale. Sensors so perfect are very hard to make, as most manufacturing processes disrupt nanoscale structures. Now, a team at Purdue University has developed a way to combine 3D plasmonic nanoarrays, special light manipulation devices, [&hellip (Read more...)
Nanodiamonds Cross Blood-Brain Barrier to Image Inside, Deliver Drugs
The blood-brain barrier is nearly impenetrable to most drugs and contrast agents, making it difficult to diagnose and treat diseases afflicting the brain. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have now developed a way of using nanodiamonds coated with a biopolymer to penetrate through the blood-brain barrier and deliver thera (Read more...)
Sonavex Secures NIH Grant to Pursue New Vascular Surgery Applications
Last week, Sonavex, a Baltimore-based medical device company, announced receipt of a $3M Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for prospective clinical studies and ongoing research and development of its EchoMark and EchoSure devices. This grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will specifically allow Sonavex (Read more...)
Handheld MasSpec Pen for Molecular Cancer Detection During Surgeries
Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have developed a new handheld pen for rapid intraoperative cancer detection. Their work demonstrates that the tool can identify different molecular profiles between cancerous and non-cancerous tissue without harming the sampled tissues. This exciting development can one day improve cancer diagnosis (Read more...)
Sensor Monitors Brain Aneurysms Post Treatment
Aneurysms within the brain are extremely dangerous, although there are therapies available such as stents and blood flow diverters. Even after treatment, a cerebral aneurysm can continue developing and how it heals cannot be predicted. Monitoring a treated vessel deep within the brain would provide physicians with the ability to act in situations t (Read more...)
CRISPR-Responsive Materials Deliver Therapy on Biological Cues
CRISPR gene editing is a technique famous for its potential to edit the genomes of living organisms, including humans. Using the technique, it may be possible to reverse congenital conditions, kill off viruses, and do things previously only imagined. But now it has been employed to do something else entirely, and that is to give […]